Tag: movies

It’s just a fun, innocent movie about dog shows for kids, right? So fun, so entertaining! FFS, do you not yet realize that you never accept candy from strangers?

What could have been solely a fun movie for kids that would get my highest recommendation is damaged by a dark and disturbing message hidden, not so subtly between the fluffy dogs and glamorous parties of the show dog lifestyle.  As part of any dog show, contestants are judged on their abilities and physical attributes.  One part, in particular, is the inspection of the dog’s private parts.  Being that Max is new to competing, he needs to learn the process so his partner, Frank, along with a former show champion work to get him ready for the final round of the competition.  Since the inspection of the private parts will happen in the finals, Frank touches Max’s private parts to get him use to it.  Of course, Max doesn’t like it and snaps at Frank for him to stop.  Max is then told by the former champion, who has been through the process before, that he needs to go to his “zen place” while it happens so he can get through it.  More attempts are made by Frank to touch Max’s private parts, but Max is still having trouble letting it happen and keeps snapping at him.

The day of the finals come and if Max doesn’t let his private parts be touched, he may lose the competition and any hope of finding the kidnapped panda.  It all rests on his ability to let someone touch his private parts.  The judge’s hands slowly reach behind Max and he goes to his “zen place”.  He’s flying through the sky, dancing with his partner, there are fireworks and flowers-everything is great-all while someone is touching his private parts.

During the movie, I kept thinking, “This is wrong, it doesn’t need to be in a kids movie. Everything else in the movie is good fun except for this.”  Afterward, my husband mentioned that he picked up on this message too, as did my mother who saw the movie with us.  My daughter, on the other hand, said her favorite part of the movie was when Max got his privates touched and the funny reaction he had.

Sweet Darwin, but these parents are stupid. Even a mother smart enough to pick up on what is going on still won’t tell other parents that they should not take their children to this pedoganda film.

Here is a reliable heuristic for evil: does it justify, rationalize, excuse, defend, encourage, advocate, or require sex with children in any way, openly or covertly, directly or indirectly? Then it is evil, topped by an evil sauce, with a side of evil.

Stop waiting for everyone else to drain the swamp. At the very least, you could refrain from refilling it.

I’m a little surprised that the SJWs aren’t out in force protesting Disney’s shockingly racist characterization of the only black man in space as a sexual freak who will attempt to molest pretty much anything within reach:

Solo: A Star Wars Story is chock full of all kinds of interesting new background information about some of Star Wars’ most iconic characters, and one of the most significant revelations to come out of the film is as subtextual as it is important. In a recent interview with the Huffington Post, Solo screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan confirmed what a significant part of the Star Wars fandom has suspected about Lando Calrissian for quite some time now. Lando’s a ladies’ man, yes, but he’s by no means straight. When asked specifically if Lando was pansexual, Kasdan replied, “I would say yes.”

Historically, the Star Wars franchise has been doing very poorly when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation, which is weird when you consider the expansive nature of the universe. So when asked about Lando’s sexuality, it was nice to see Kasdan reply thoughtfully. He said that while the smuggler wouldn’t put a specific label on himself, he’d be even less likely to buy into the traditional ideas about sexual preference:

“There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s [portrayal of Lando’s] sexuality. I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie. I think it’s time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity ― sort of the spectrum of sexuality that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of.”

It’s only a matter of time before we are informed that Lando Calrissian is involved in a committed trans-species post-gender polygamous relationship with Chewbacca and BB-8. Shameless doesn’t even begin to describe these lunatic wreckers. I’m only surprised that Solo did not turn out to be a tribute to the young Han’s career as an artistic auto-eroticist when he was young and needed the money.

From a comment at John C. Wright’s blog. People may not be quick to accept the truth, but they eventually learn they have no other choice:

The Last Jedi is the most franchise destructive movie I’ve ever seen. Worse than Alien 3 (which I would actually pay to have removed from my memory). They took something that had something for everyone, made it explicitly female (the force is not gendered you assholes!!!), made it all shades of grey and removed the fight between good and evil, and devastated one of the greatest heroes of our time.

I think they’ve lost millions upon millions of their most ardent fans in exchange for luke warm SJW fans. I had worries when Disney bought Star Wars, and they were all on display in The Last Jedi.

My daughter and I waited in line for 2 hours to be one of the first in the theater for The Force Awakens, we waited for 2 hours to be one of the first to Rogue One, and then 3 hours to be the first at The Last Jedi. We aren’t going to Solo opening day or weekend.

A longtime Marvel fan is very unhappy with the new Marvel blockbuster. Warning, SEVERE spoilers after the fold. Do NOT read this if you do not want to know what happens in the movie. It will ruin it for you, to the extent that is actually possible.

Loved the Marvel Universe, loved Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers, some of the best Sci Fi made IMHO.  Didn’t really like the last Thor movie, thought they mocked and attempted to de empower him, but hey, allowed Thor to exercise his comedy chops, no harm.

Then came Infinity War.  And I realized the blogs I have been reading are right.  They HATE us.  There is no other explanation for this. 

You take the Marvel Universe, gather all the heroes together, let the Evil win and kill off half of the galaxy.  Half!  Including half of your hero characters.  Think about a guest director on an episode of any of the Star Trek TV shows; just kill off half of the universe and half of the crew.  Then hand it back to the regular team “ there!  Fixed it for you, all those pesky heroes are gone, no need to thank me”

I understand sacrificing key characters in support of the story and the narrative; Spock, Groot, Han.  I mourned but I didn’t whinge, in the story line it made sense.  But this movie made no sense and there is no recovering from this unless they do a loopy this-was-just-a-dream/time-warp-fooled-you deus ex machina crap.

We go to movies for enjoyment, for fun, for escape, and yes, for a little bit of hope.  I have that quote from Second Hand Lions on my wall

“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most: that people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; that love, true love, never dies… No matter if they’re true or not, a man should believe in those things because those are the things worth believing in.”

Where was any of this in Infinity War?  Nothing our heroes did made a damn bit of difference.  And whenever they tried to do a noble sacrifice? Magical Bubbles appeared (and more than once). The Hulk?  For no reason every made clear in the previous cannon the Hulk is de empowered and made a figure of fun.  True love?  Let em watch each other die with no gain or reason other than Reasons!  Thor?  Beaten to a pulp and all his people killed including Loki, but Natasha (a human grrl) can beat them back to a standstill?  Iron Man and Dr. Strange?  Let’s have them at each other’s throats.  I am sorry, but it seemed very clear to me all that was happening was the folks at Disney et al were just trying to shit all over a beloved universe and its fans.  And oh guess what?  The Evil was doing it for Climate Change Reasons???  Kill half the galaxy to save the galaxy because humans are a pestilence?  Seriously?

This wasn’t just a bad movie, this was a deliberate attempt to attack and hurt the fans and their love for this  universe.  I get sacrifice and I get losing characters, I do.  But yah know, I don’t watch Macbeth because of the Everyone Dies routine.  When you take that cheap out way of attempting drama, you end up with no one left to carry the story.  Ah, they can just fill out with more a not a white male remakes and attempt to sell it to an new and different audience.  One that doesn’t love sci fi or superheroes, that will not be paying to watch.  But that appears to be the whole idea, isn’t it?  Take it over and destroy it.  If I stop watching these movies, they win.  If I keep watching these movies, they win.

Any hope for a Dread Ilk Movie project?

Actually, it sounds as if George Martin would have benefited heavily from such an approach. And yes, there very likely will be a movie project down the road. But first things first….

Hollywood finally excommunicates Roman Polanski:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has expelled Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski from its membership, the organization said Thursday. The Academy’s board of governors, following its new procedure for enforcing Standards of Conduct that it adopted in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, voted to expel the comedian and the director at its most recent meeting on Tuesday.

“The Board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy’s values of respect for human dignity,” the Academy said in a statement announcing their expulsion.

A five-time Oscar nominee, Polanski will keep the Oscar he was awarded in 2003 for directing The Pianist, an honor he couldn’t accept in person because he fled the U.S. in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. Cosby was found guilty of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand in 2004 by a Pennsylvania jury last Thursday after 14 hours of deliberation.

Of course, they did nominate him three times for an Oscar during those four decades, and even gave him one 15 years ago. As Spacebunny commented, they’re only kicking out Polanski because they are under pressure to expel Cosby, and they can’t do so without being called racist if they don’t give Polanski the boot as well.

Ah, Hollywood values. The fact that they see fit to posture about their “ethical standards” and lecture the rest of the world would be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.

According to the WGA’s 2016 Hollywood Writers Report, just two Native American writers were employed in film in 2014 (the latest year for which data is available), compared with 1,494 white writers. Native Americans accounted for 1.2 percent of the U.S. population in 2014 but in film represented just 0.1{a538f03b5e5ee5fdc03407ba0ca231ac78bf6d75a4715bce2458722af48b01e9} of writers, making them the demographic group with the most disproportionate underrepresentation by a factor of 12 to 1.

So, if we do start making movies in another year or three, I wonder if Castalia Studios will be celebrated as the first Native American-led film studio?

I’m guessing no.

The Man Behind the Curtain seeks a sex change for Indy:

Ready Player One director Steven Spielberg says it’s time for a woman to play Indiana Jones. The director says he knows putting a woman in the lead role of an Indiana Jones movie would upset fans, but believes it’s time the explorer ‘took a different form’.

A woman? Or a girl? No doubt Mr. Spielberg would find it very amusing to make Indy an 10-year-old girl. A promiscuous 10-year-old girl coming on to an older man. Perhaps he could be an older man who just happens to make movies starring lots of children.

After all, it wouldn’t be interesting if she was 16 or 17, right, Stephen?

The Hollywood Values crowd apparently doesn’t want Corey Feldman talking anymore as accusations of child abuse swirl around a major Nickelodeon producer:

Corey Feldman has been hospitalised after being stabbed by a man in what he claims to be a ‘revenge attack’ after his allegations about sexual abuse in Hollywood.

The actor tweeted two pictures of himself in a hospital bed and revealed the attack happened while his security guards were distracted.

Three men approached him while he was out in public, before another man pulled up in his vehicle.

Now, Feldman is shady enough that one can be excused for being a little suspicious about the nature of the attack. I certainly would not put it past him to stage something like this for attention. But if it was a legitimate attack, then it is a clear message being sent to all the young actors and actresses who were abused by people in Hollywood.

Which is why they are better off talking immediately, openly, and loudly to every media outlet that will listen. Otherwise, they will be quietly silenced, one way or another, as has been happening for decades.

UPDATE: Apparently not.

Desperate for more funds, this former child/teen actor who was mostly in movies is resorting to cheap publicity stunts to try and raise more money from what he hopes is a gullible public. Those vacations aren’t going to pay for themselves. 

I think it’s safe to assume the reference is to the unfortunate Mr. Feldman.

Tonight at 8 PM EST we will have an open Brainstorm session to discuss the current status of Arkhaven and Dark Legion, as well as the hypothetical possibility of creating a community-owned movie studio. I realize the latter sounds entirely crazy, but I don’t think it’s necessarily quite as insane as it sounds. It might not be possible yet, but a number of the necessary pieces are at least prospectively in place. And while it’s not even a secondary or tertiary goal of mine, the utility of having a viable visual outlet for the stories we are creating in other formats does not escape me.

There are 500 seats available, and it is first come, first seated.

I have a request in for a feature that would permit reserved seating, but obviously they have not yet had time to implement it. I’m sorry about the double emailing to Brainstorm members, but DST hasn’t changed here yet so I initially got the time there wrong.

I tend to doubt anyone at all was surprised by the fact that Hollywood diversitied, de-Christianized, and generally despoiled Madeleine L’Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time. But as a longtime fan of the book – and an especial fan of A Swiftly Tilting Planet – I nevertheless find myself feeling a bit angry at the intentional destruction of a long-cherished tale.

Madeleine L’Engle’s classic young adult novel “A Wrinkle in Time” is the latest victim of diversity-deranged stunt casting in which no respect is paid to the race or sex of existing literary characters. But that’s only one reason why this frustrating fiasco is such an embarrassing failure. Director Ava DuVernay (“Selma”), who has no feel at all for the material, seems more interested in promoting colorblind multi-culturalism than producing an entertaining adaptation that is worthy of its much-beloved source.

Although movies featuring original characters whose physical attributes have been unspecified elsewhere are legitimate equal-opportunity roles for any actors, deviating from already established characters turns a project into either a sort of alternative-reality racelifted remake (the black-cast versions of “Annie” and “Steel Magnolias”), a re-imagined novelty (“The Wiz”), comic exploitation (“Blacula”) or a display of randomly colorblind inclusiveness (a black Human Torch in the most recent “Fantastic Four”). All of those swaps are distracting enough to seem like gimmicks, even if an appearance-miscast actor gives an otherwise adequate performance.

Teenage Meg Murry and her mother, both white like the rest of their family in the 1962 “A Wrinkle in Time” novel, are portrayed in this film version by black actresses Storm Reid and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Dad is played by Caucasian Chris Pine. Because Meg’s precocious younger brother Charles Wallace is played by Filipino-American Deric McCabe, this results in the absurdity of the character now being identified as adopted, presumably because it would be hard to believe he could be the product of Mbatha-Raw and Pine’s union. Twin brothers from the book are missing entirely from the movie, which may be a blessing, considering that political correctness probably would have dictated they be played by a Native American dwarf and a disabled transsexual.

The irony of making changes like these to a book in which Meg herself states that “like and equal are not the same thing at all” apparently was lost on those responsible. (Then again, the line does not appear in the movie, possibly because the filmmakers knew they had sabotaged said theme.) Also, it’s unfortunate that the film eliminates the novel’s references to Christianity that resulted in it being banned from some libraries. Inclusion apparently has its limits.

I still have not forgotten how Hollywood sucked all the story and the soul out of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising and turned it into a pointless nothing of a movie. Seeing the soulless vampires do the same thing to Madeleine L’Engle only confirms my decision to stay very far away from the entertainment Ecthroi.

When the time comes, we will make our own movies and we will tell our own stories. We will not sell them to the soul-destroyers to be transformed into mocking parodies of what they were created to be. If you are an author, do not sell or option your rights to these creatures. It is not worth it.

Appendix N author Jeffro Johnson takes David Brooks to task for a shockingly ignorant statement about the cultural power of conservatives:

Writing in the pages of The New York Times, conservative commentator David Brooks closes out a column with this striking kicker:

Conservatives have zero cultural power, but they have immense political power. Even today, voters trust Republicans on the gun issue more than Democrats. If you exile 40 percent of the country from respectable society they will mount a political backlash that will make Donald Trump look like Adlai Stevenson.

It’s audacious, really. I mean sure, non-leftists have been steadily filtered out of education, academia, journalism, publishing, Hollywood, and the arts for so long that most people can’t even imagine it being any different. But zero? Really?

It takes a special sort of ignorance to embrace such a position. Even the residual power of Tarzan, Cthulhu, Middle Earth, and Conan remains a potent force, even in a marketplace flooded with both bastardized derivatives and hostile critiques. Smarmy elites dismissed the staunchly Catholic Tolkien in his lifetime and declared heroic fantasy bad for us from every platform they could manage to subdue. And yet he outlasted all of his detractors to become Author of the Century. And right at this very moment, Jordan Peterson’s number one international bestselling book is a sensation precisely because it is making the timeless wisdom that infuses the Bible accessible to a generation that is starving for answers and common sense.

The reason the ideological Right has limited cultural power these days is because the Left, with (((David Brooks))) and his nation in the vanguard, have worked very hard for at least four generations at attempting to eradicate everything from the culture that betrays any sign of Christian influence or Western tradition.

And the reason that they are failing despite their near-complete control of the cultural high ground is because they have literally nothing to offer in its place. All they ever had to offer was reaction, negation, ugliness, filth, and snark. Sure, you can adulterate Christmas, and you can substitute Silver Bells, shopping, Santa, and Seasons Greetings for Silent Night, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Scrooge, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, but at the end of the day, either you come up with a substitute or your efforts will eventually prove futile.

What did they come up with in over a century of frantic effort? Festivus, the Hannukah Aardvark, and horrible movies that are bad even by Seth Rogen’s standards. Hardly an attractive exchange for even the most godless pagan.

We not only can win this cultural war, we cannot lose it so long as we continue to create things that are good, beautiful, and true, and continue to refuse entrance to the infiltrating wormtongues who are always there with their helpful blandishments and seductive offers to sell your creative soul to Mammon.

So let them turn Elsa of the Crowleyesque anthem into a lesbian. Let them transform Superman into an SJW superhero fighting for global migration, one-world government, and AIPAC. Let them continue to preen and posture and sneer and snark in futility. It will avail them nothing. Like their Father the Devil, they cannot create, they can only corrupt. And that is why the greatness of Tolkien, of Howard, of Lovecraft, and of Wright will continue to be recognized over time despite the Left’s best efforts to denigrate and diminish it.

Here are three more shots in the cultural war for the West. Another will be fired tomorrow.

UPDATE: Jeffro responds to a defeatist gamma who took exception to his post, then showed up here to lie about him.